Skunk or Swamp Cabbage symplocarpus foetidus Flowers-Minute, perfect, foetid; many scattered over a thick, rounded, fleshy spadix, and hidden within a swollen, shell-shaped, purplish-brown to greenish-yellow, usually mottled, spathe, close to the ground, that appears before the leaves.
"Wild Flowers Worth Knowing"
Neltje Blanchan et al